Top 12 World Series Losers of the Last 40 Years

I did not count teams like the '88 A's who later won (in '89) with essentially the same team. This would also exclude, for instance, the '04 Cardinals (who were great), since they won in '06 with essentially the same team.

12) '75 Red Sox and '67 Red Sox (Tie)
11) '80 Royals
10) '93 Phillies
9) '02 Giants
8) '86 Red Sox
7) '82 Brewers
6) '79 Orioles
5) '70 Reds
4) '03 Yankees
3) '74 Dodgers
2) '85 Cardinals
1) '95 Indians

I think it is a toss-up between the '95 Indians and the '85 Cardinals for #1.

Do you know what the common factor was for most of these teams? They all had better hitting than they did pitching (although some were pretty good in both categories). The '79 Orioles is the only exception to this, which had much better pitching than hitting. That probably says something about the importance of pitching in the post-season.

 

I didn't include the '72 Reds since they won in '75 and '76 with essentially the same team. Why did I include the '70 Reds? Well, because that team was somewhat different - their pitching staff was almost completely different, and they didn't have Morgan (and '72-'76 didn't have Lee May). So there was enough turnover from the '70 team compared to the '75 team when they finally won.